Periodically
we will feature a certain make of outboard on the Yankee Chapter home
page. Our current Feature Company: Lockwood-Ash, was selected simply
because we had good clean graphics and have recently been tinkering
with one!

Lockwood-Ash

1921
Lockwood Ash Rowboat Motor

1926
Lockwood Ash 62T

The
Jackson Michigan based Lockwood-Ash produced their first outboard in
1914. Single cylinder rowboat motors like the one pictured were “state
of the art” in the teens and early twenties.

By
the mid 1920’s the two cylinder "model T" came on the
scene and enjoyed some real sales success. In the late 1920’s,
Lockwood’s Ace and Chief were pretty potent outboards and enjoyed
success on the outboard racing circuit.

Lockwood
also was an early entry into the “badge engineered” or “private
brand” business supplying Sears & Roebuck with Motorgo outboards
for many years. (Other famous brands Caille and Neptune also offered
outboards to Sears for resale under the Motorgo name.)

Despite
Lockwood’s success, the company ended up merging with Evinrude/Elto
in late 1929. Many people say that Evinrude purchased the company just
to get the now famous engineer Finn T. Irgens to work for them! Evinrude
stopped production in Michigan but some tooling, engineering ideas and
employees found their way to Milwaukee. After a very short period, no
doubt due to the great depression, the Lockwood name was dropped entirely.

Today
Lockwood outboards enjoy a nice following with members of the AOMCI.
They are not the rarest of old outboards or the most common. Like many
motors from the time, eighty years of use and abuse can lead to broken
castings and dented gas tanks. The Eisemann coils and condensers in
the magneto seem to have a high failure rate and the “slip clutch”
on the propeller of the “T” series can be troublesome.

Have
an old outboard you would like to see featured? Simply write up a small
description and send us two clear graphics (the one for the home page
must be formatted portrait) and it can be included here! Please
send comments and ideas to the "Contact Us" link on the bottom
of the page.